Located at 909 Summit St. just east of the Iowa Veterans Home, the National Guard Armory in Marshalltown is home to the 1168th Transportation Company and is part of a larger network of facilities supporting the Guard across the state. On Monday, the Armory hosted a lunch and learn event with business, community and educational leaders with an emphasis on the employment skills the men and women of the Guard gain through their service and the impact they make.

After an introduction from Iowa National Guard Director of Public Affairs Jackie Schmillen, Brigadier General and Deputy Adjutant General William F. McClintock gave a presentation about the organization and thanked everyone in the room for attending, specifically shouting out those in public safety positions such as law enforcement and fire.

“We like to speak to leaders for the simple fact that we recruit right out of your businesses and your organizations, and we want the brightest and best wearing this uniform,” he said.

In total, the Iowa National Guard, which is broken into Army and Air divisions, receives about $400 million in annual funding, the vast majority of which comes from the federal government along with a $15 million state commitment. About 8,700 men and women currently serve in the Iowa National Guard — 7,000 of those on the Army side, and 22 percent of them work full-time.

McClintock noted that there are 290 different types of jobs available within the Guard.

The Guard made national news late last year when two of its soldiers — SSG William Nathaniel Howard of Marshalltown and SSG Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar of Des Moines — were killed in a terrorist attack while serving in Palmyra, Syria, and McClintock told the crowd there are still 200 members of the Guard deployed “in harm’s way” presently with another 125 stationed in Germany. He hopes to see them all come home by the end of May.

He later discussed the future of the Marshalltown Armory and the potential of building a new facility, which McClintock said would likely be either closer to Highway 30 or out near the airport north of town if the land could be secured. Such a project, however, is likely at least 10 to 15 years out at the moment.

“We want to stay part of this community. We want to continue to put money into this armory, but we don’t put too much into it because eventually we’ll sell it back to the city and build something new. But we’re a few years out on that,” he said.

From there, McClintock passed the microphone to Cpt. Harding, who also serves as an instructor at the University of Iowa, and she spoke about the importance of the armory — “it might not be the prettiest, but it’s home to us and it’s got a lot of history,” in her words — and highlighted the experiences of several members from the unit, including Jesse Andersen, Marshalltown Firefighter Brandon Fogt and Marshall County Jailer Emma Lizarde.

A special moment was shared when McClintock swore in SSG Julissa Livengood as she decided to extend her service, and Brian Chung wrapped it up with brief remarks on the Iowa Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR) program.

Schmillen encouraged those in attendance to take photos and spread the word about the Armory, which is open for private event rentals, and a group was taken out to the Marshalltown Airport for a ride in a Chinook helicopter — featuring the face of Lionel Ritchie in a tribute to an “All Night Long” mission in Iraq — when a maintenance issue derailed the plans before they could take flight.

As the event wound down at the Armory, McClintock and Iowa Army National Guard Chief of Staff Chuck Lampe spoke to the T-R about why community outreach efforts are so important to them.

“Our focus has been deployments and working, right? And we’ve lost some of that connectivity, and that’s why we’re trying to make sure we get back to our roots and what we’re here for, service to the state and community,” Lampe said. “We’re part of your community… It means as much to the soldiers who are part of this community to be here in this community, to serve the people in this community, as it does for the Iowa National Guard as a whole.”

Both Lampe and McClintock have law enforcement backgrounds and were proud to see that so many men and women from the Guard are continuing their public service through other roles — as well as seeing leaders like Marshalltown Police Chief Chris Jones, Marshalltown Fire Chief Christopher Cross and Marshall County Sheriff Joel Phillips in the audience.

“This is a great community and they support us. And we want to be part of that partnership,” Lampe said.

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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or

rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.